Nipah Virus

The namesake of this virus is a small village in Malaysia called Sungai Nipah. Way back in the late 1990’s when pig farming became a rampant activity in Malaysia, a few farmers got infected by the pigs, which were just the intermediate carriers. The pigs were in turn infected by fruit bats, also known as flying foxes. The fruit bats are the host carriers of the Nipah Virus and are unaffected by it. This virus is a zoonotic pathogen, which means that it can transfer between different species. The symptoms of the infection are similar to encephalitis, which are fever, headache, disorientation, mental confusion, coma, and death.
Soon after, the same pigs were exported to Singapore, which is where the pathogen spread further. Very recently it was discovered in India as well, killing 18 out of the 19 infected. The reason this pathogen is considered dangerous is because it has a fatality rate of above 40 percent and it can transfer through contact. Furthermore, no vaccine has been invented for it. Thus the only way to prevent being infected is to not be near someone already sick with it and to avoid eating date palm sap or any other food that fruit bats eat.
Ebola is another example of a zoonotic pathogen spread for infected primates or bats to humans. Such pathogens are unavoidable because of the number of animals we displace from their homes because of deforestation. All we can do is to try and create a vaccine and prevent it from spreading further.